Brad Stevens has to get back to experimenting to solve the Boston Celtics’ early struggles
The Boston Celtics already had a far too unsettled rotation to start the season, and everything was blown up after Gordon Hayward suffered a broken ankle in the first game. They are also still waiting for the return of Marcus Morris, making it impossible to know what the rotation will look like at full strength.
The problem now is that the Celtics do not have an established option they can go to. Losing Hayward completely changes how Stevens may want to run the starting unit, but he might not even know how he wants to do that at this point either.
There is so much unknown on this team and not enough time to figure it out. That being said, any option used by the Celtics will appear experimental at this point, and that gives Stevens a new kind of freedom to try things out with his lineup that may have been too risky with the stability brought by Hayward.
Before the season started, Stevens had unprecedented expectations this season, and there was not going to be any grace period for this team to figure things out. The Celtics were supposed to be the number one seed, and they were supposed to finally be good enough to take down LeBron James.
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Now, all of that has changed. There will be criticism with their struggles, but most people are expecting it now. Chances are Stevens would not have paid attention to the outside noise anyways, but even internally, it will be easier for him to accept mistakes from himself and his players.
There really is no obvious answer for the Celtics right now, and it gets even more complicated if Marcus Smart misses any time with his ankle problems. Eventually getting Morris back will add some stability, but the Celtics are going to need something different to make this work in the mean time, and potentially beyond.
This kind of experimental freedom is exactly where Stevens is comfortable. Throughout his entire time in Boston, he’s rosters have been constantly changing, and he has been remarkable at finding ways to make it work.
It is more complicated this season, considering how few returning members there are, meaning the players that stick around are also a bit less comfortable. That being said, Stevens has done plenty with much less talent than this roster, but he needs some time.
Stevens does not instantly have the answer as to how to optimize the talent at his disposal. He is remarkable at evaluating and adjusting to what he sees on the court. After two games and three injuries, he has not had the opportunity to see much he can hold onto.
Stevens will continue to experiment with the players he has. We saw Abdel Nader unexpectedly be the first player off the bench last game, and it could be anyone else from here on out. Stevens will be patient and he will take the time to experiment with this roster, and that will give him the knowledge necessary to patch things up on an already injury riddled team.
The reality is that while Stevens is experimenting, things could get ugly. At first, things will not be automatically working. It is through those struggles that Stevens discovers what he needs to do with his roster.
Ideally, the Celtics will find ways to win games while Stevens is experimenting. They have had opportunities to win both of these first games, despite not playing anywhere near their potential, and with the players sidelined.
This was supposed to be the season where Stevens had that stable top end talent to not need to experiment with different options, but that is not the situation anymore. Fortunately, we have seen Stevens flourish in this situation before, and with some of the pressure for immediate success off, he can take some of these loses without getting too worried.
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The Celtics have always had the utmost faith in Stevens, and he has rewarded that every step of the way. Once again the Celtics need to believe in Stevens’ ability to make the talent on this roster work, because if everything comes together, they can still be a top team.